Destination Guide Contents

Cienfuegos DESTINATION GUIDE CONTENTS 04 08 01 05 09 02 06 10 03 07 INTRODUCTION When UNESCO declared conquistadors set off in that the historic centre of 1514 to found the towns of Cienfuegos was a World Trinidad and Sancti Spíritus. Heritage Site in 2005 the And on one Assumption organisation took many Day, Friar Bartolomé de reasons into account. But las Casas gave his famous one of the most important sermon of repentance here, was that the city is the “first before returning to Spain and an outstanding example and dedicating his life to of an architectural ensemble defending the rights of the representing the new ideas native population. In 1745, of modernity, hygiene and long before the city was order in urban planning as founded, Cienfuegos had a these developed in Latin America from the 19th century”. where famous people such as the ballerina Anna Pavlova fortress called Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (Our Lady of and the Captain General Arsenio Martínez Campos have the Angels) in Jagua. This was quite unusual as it wasn’t Cienfuegos is a neoclassical city that differs from all the stayed. just any old stronghold, but rather the third in importance others in Cuba and America. This is partly because it on the island after the Tres Reyes Magos del Morro (Three was founded late (1819) by French colonists when Cuba But the wealth of heritage does not just lie in the city’s Magi of the Promontory) Fortress in Havana and San Pedro was still under Spanish rule. In its declaration, UNESCO buildings; Cienfuegos is full of history, culture and special de la Roca (St Peter of the Rock) Castle in Santiago de highlights that its architecture evolved from its neoclassical traditions and legends, many dating from before the Cuba. beginnings to become more eclectic, while retaining its Spanish conquest. The waters of the fabulous Jagua harmony as an overall townscape. Particularly interesting Bay bathing the city were home to the Jagua cacicazgo Cienfuegos is the only city in the country with a triumphal buildings are: Government Palace (City Hall), San Lorenzo (chiefdom) of the Ciboney people, who told a fable on arch; singers as famous as Caruso have performed in its School, the Bishopric and Ferrer Palace. And its best the origin of man. According to this famous legend, when Tomás Terry Theatre; the fallen in its battlefields during neoclassical buildings dating from the 19th century include: Guanaroca, the first Ciboney woman, lost her son, her tears the War of Independence include Brigadier General Henry Tomás Terry Theatre, Spanish Casino, Palatino Tavern and gave rise to the rivers, the fish and the keys that today Reeve, fighting for the Cuban Mambí Army, who was Blanco Palace, which is also a Local Monument. The House form the bay. nicknamed the Inglesito (Little Englishman) because he of Lions, the house-warehouse of the Spanish merchant was from the United States; and the greatest Cuban singer, José García de la Noceda, the Customs Building and the This is where Governor Diego de Velázquez and his men the Bárbaro del Ritmo, Benny Moré, began his career in renowned La Unión Hotel, currently managed by Meliá, landed at the beginning of the 16th century. From here the Cienfuegos. 3 The first 01 settlers Cienfuegos wouldn’t be Cienfuegos without the sea. a narrow, protected entrance channel that amazed craftspeople, manufacturers of phallic idols and cassava Because it’s the sea and its sheltered bay that attracted Sebastián de Ocampo when he sailed around the island graters. They arrived on the island afterwards and the first native settlers and afterwards the Spanish of Cuba in 1509. settled in eastern Cuba by conquering the Ciboney. conquistadors to the area. And these same waters help make Cienfuegos so special, as this Frenchified city’s The first to settle in Cuba were the Guanahatabey and Some of the Ciboney living in the seas south of the architecture and urban development are unique in Cuba, then the peaceful Ciboney, immigrants from the Amazon island’s centre formed the Jagua cacicazgo. These were which is why it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage who travelled to the island by canoe through the bridge the people that started the first legends in the area, Cultural Site in 2005. of the Lesser Antilles, bringing with them their culture such as the one about Guanaroca; fish, turtles and the of shells, snails and small molluscs that were the basis tears shed by this first Ciboney woman when she lost Cienfuegos had Spanish colonists and French founders. of their food and formed their objects. The Ciboney her son, Imao, transformed into Guanaroca Lagoon and But before that its gentle waters cradled Ciboney had some agricultural knowledge and produced very the rivers, peninsulas, keys and lagoons of the fabulous natives from the former Jagua cacicazgo, who settled primitive pots. But their culture was vastly inferior to Jagua Bay, on whose shores Cienfuegos was founded in on the shores of this splendid 88-km2 pocket bay with that of the Taino people, who were ceramicists, textile 1819. 4 Columbus, Diego de Velázquez and 02 Friar Bartolomé de Las Casas Around 1494, on his had already sent Diego de Velázquez to conquer and out. However, this was second voyage to America, colonise Cuba and become its governor. He was joined where Velázquez ordered Christopher Columbus on that expedition by 300 men, including Hernán Cortes, his men to go out and stopped over in Jagua Pedro Alvarado, Juan de Grijalva and Friar Bartolomé de found Trinidad and Sancti Bay to stock the caravels las Casas as the chaplain. The latter had been the holder Spíritus in 1514 because the La Niña, La Juana and La of an encomienda in Hispaniola and later became the prospects of finding gold- Cordero with water and great defender of the native population’s rights. bearing sands were better wood, thus providing there, a belief that turned Europe with the first This group was joined by Pánfilo de Narváez from out to be false. mention of this place, which Jamaica. He was one of the men responsible for the he called Misas Port. In 1509, when Sebastián de Ocampo famous slaughter in Caonao, a locality near the current In Hispaniola, Friar Bartolomé sailed completely around the island for the first time, he Camagüey, in which the conquistadors massacred had heard the preaching of also stopped over during his long voyage on one of the hundreds of indigenous people in an episode that Las the Dominican Friar Antonio de Montesinos criticising the keys inside the fabulous inlet (the current Cayo Ocampo). Casas brutally described in his “A Short Account of the conquistadors for maltreating the indigenous population; He later informed the King of Spain that “... this port, Destruction of the Indies”. nevertheless, he still defended the encomienda system called Jagua by its inhabitants, is one of the best and and for participating in the colonisation of Cuba he was safest for a thousand ships in the world”. The first town founded in Cuba by Velázquez in the given some indigenous people and land near the mouth of summer of 1511 was Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de the River Arimao in Jagua Bay. The island of Hispaniola Baracoa, in the north-eastern end of the island. It was was the centre of the New followed by San Salvador de Bayamo. Eager to conquer This was where Las Casas realised that this system World at the time. The first more, after overcoming indigenous resistance and burning imposed by the colonists was unfair and so on Assumption encomiendas, the colony’s the Taino chief Hatuey at the stake, Velázquez and his Day, 15 August 1514, aged 30, he set off from Jagua to primitive production men continued to advance towards the west of the island give his famous sermon of repentance in which he publicly system based on enslaving and again reached Jagua Bay. renounced his encomienda and began his fight to defend the indigenous population, the indigenous population in the recently founded town of were established there. By Despite Jagua Bay’s excellent natural conditions and Sancti Spíritus. These historic places can today be visited 1511 the Governor of the fertile soil, gold wasn’t plentiful there and so establishing and form a unique route. Indies, Nicolás de Ovando, a town in that Ciboney cacicazgo (chiefdom) was ruled 5 The first colonists 03 and pirates Some time after Friar Bartolomé de las Casas left, new who they called Mari. She gave rise to the legend of Spanish colonists peacefully settled on the shores of Marilope symbolised by the yellow flower with an intense Jagua Bay. Agriculture, fishing and livestock rearing were sulphur tone known by this name. It is typical of the safe resources, as was fine hardwood that was abundant southern region where it grows wild in dry and rocky in this place and which centuries later were used to areas. make and repair boats and to build mansions in Havana, Trinidad and, beyond the seas, even to embellish some Both stories, whether real or made up, formed two of rooms and ceilings in the Royal Palace in Madrid. the most wonderful colonial legends of Jagua Bay. And it is no coincidence that both also concerned pirates and It wasn’t strange to see colonists pairing up with corsairs that took refuge in such a sheltered bay or even indigenous women. In the beginning, the governors of temporarily settled in its inner keys. Hispaniola and Cuba even encouraged the new settlers to marry the daughters or relatives of the main chiefs to Famous pirates visiting Jagua Bay were Jacques de Sores expand alliances and increase their wealth with the lands in 1554, Francis Drake in 1586, and John Morgan, Jean the they possessed.

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